This fortnight’s theme for The Cookbook Challenge was a tricky one for me. Eggs. You see, I never have eggs on hand. When baking at home, I use ground flax and water as an egg replacement and, in the rare cases where I do bake with actual eggs, I do so at my parents’ house. That way, I can use just one or two eggs without having to buy a half-dozen that I’ll later forget I have. And if I go to my parents’ place and they don’t have eggs? Well, that’s when I walk up the road to my grandparents’ house to beg an egg from them. (Beg an egg. Teehee.)

In addition to not having eggs on hand, I very rarely want to eat them as the starring ingredient in a meal. Sometimes, if I’m out at a cafe, I’ll want poached eggs on an English muffin. But that’s about the extent of it.

I considered skipping this Egg Cookbook Challenge theme, but I instead decided to fall back onto my tried-and-true motto of cooking:

When in doubt, make dessert.

Thus I present to you Coffee Meringue Bites. Hurrah! Look, I know I’ve made chai-spiced meringues for you before, and have also shown you how to make pavlova for a German, but one can never have too many recipes for light and airy crunchy sweet treats, can one?

Plus, I think I like these coffee meringues more than the chai version, because the coffee flavour cuts through some of the sweetness. It’s like caffeinated sugary bliss.

Coffee Meringue Bites

From The Women’s Weekly Healthy Desserts Mini Cookbook

1 egg white

1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar

1 tsp instant coffee granules

1 tsp hot water

1. Preheat oven to 120°C (250°F). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Beat egg white with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, beating until dissolved between each addition.

3. Stir in combined (and dissolved) coffee and water. Now, you can do what the recipe said and put the meringue into a piping bag to pipe out twists, or you can do what I did and make “rustic” quenelles with two spoons. I got 20 mini meringue bites out of the mixture, and am perplexed at the recipe’s statement that this recipe makes 35. 35 ant-sized meringues, maybe.

4. Bake for one hour, and then turn oven off and leave meringues in the oven to cool.

5. As ever, eat some of these plain and some sandwiched together with nut butter. Sunflower seed butter, if you want to follow my lead exactly. And who wouldn’t want to follow my lead exactly, I ask you? Who? EXACTLY.

So I guess meringues ARE sweet, huh? Yeah, I’m with ya, I just rarely bake them so I never let them stew in their piled-on sweetness.

And no eggs? That’s crazy talk. If I had no eggs, I would not be motivated to get up in the morning, because I would then have to spend my time getting dressed, or even (gasp) doing my hair, rather than making pancakes or waffles. Yummity yum.

I’m a firm believer in not spending time doing one’s hair, so amen to pancakes and waffles instead! Except, of course, I’ve neither eaten nor made pancakes in at least, I think, a decade, so it’s probably a bit strange for me to say that… Make me some? With chocolate and peanut butter? And maple syrup?

omgsh these bring memories from childhood! I used to eat meringues all the time! But these look even better b/c of the coffee flavor. Hannah, did you go through problems of body image issues during high school? Just wondering, since you said it brings weird memories. Have a beautiful day! 🙂 and HAPPY EASTER TO YOU! i believe it’s a lot closer to you time-wise than to us in the U.S.

Those on twitter might have read that I was happily licking the covered-in-meringue beater when I dropped it all over myself. I was very sticky as a result. That’s what happens when you sneakily leave a lot of uncooked batter for yourself as a treat…

I laughed at your dislike of eggs – I have never liked eggs – not even as a child – but I often keep eggs in the fridge because I use them to bake. Though I love vegan recipes that mean I can bake if there aren’t eggs in the fridge. I made my cookbook challenge tonight and had similar problems with eggs though I went for a savoury dish. If I must have eggy I prefer savoury – does that make us total opposites 🙂

Hmm, I’m not sure. I think it’s more that I’ve got out of the habit of eating eggs? When I order poached eggs I like it, and I remember making a veggie-laden frittata a year or so ago that was lovely… I think it’s more than my tastes tend towards sweet in general 😉 Can’t wait to see what you came up with!

Beg for an egg, sounds like a charity drive! I’m not a Meringue/Pavlova fan, but if I were I think one with hints of coffee would be a winner. Although I forgot about your chai spiced ones…beautiful. I think I just need to get creative with my meringues and then I’ll like them!
Heidi xo

Victoria is a clever one! It’s funny to think of someone never having had meringue, but then again the reason I’ve had them (and pavlovas) so much is that they’re dairy and gluten-free, which means they fit in with all my family’s allergies!

Any chance the coffee could be substituted with cocoa to make chocolate meringue? I made this previously and adored it, but the caffienne and a 3yo daughter combination was not best one, she loved them though. May try cocoa today and see what happens.

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About

Hannah. Writer, editor, firm believer in socks, gin, laughter, buttered toast, cheesecake, and semicolons. Currently back in Canberra after two years living in Canada; heart tingling to see what happens next.